As I had a leave pass for the weekend that was going unused by the 4x4 because of the fires, I decided I was going to head off for a ride around the western side of Victoria. The general gist was to head towards Wyperfeld/Big Desert, but that was only a rough plan.
After saying goodbye to the Missus & Small Noisy Child at about 6pm on thursday night, I worked on getting approx 2 hours away so I was pulling up on dusk. After some Google Mapping earlier in the week, my target was Melville Caves in the Kooyoora State Park, just out of Inglewood. I completed the transit across the city with relatively few incidents, and pulled up at the server at Calder Park, because looking at the sky, I figured I might need my wets:
After getting the wets on (which instantly turned into a steam suit as it was still ~30deg) and putting the GoPro on the side of my lid, I continued up the Calder on my way to northwestish. At this point, Mother Nature decided she was going to test my wets, and started throwing heavy rain and lightning at me..
:thun
(30sec and 1:30+ are the interesting-er bits)
I now know that my wets aren't totally waterproof, and I ended up with a wet inner elbow (?!) and wet unmentionables.. :evil: Still, by the time I got to Harcourt, it was back to being dry and warm, so I could unzip the suit and dry off.
I was watching another storm off to my left all the way between Bendigo and Inglewood, just hoping it wasn't settling in over the top of my planned campsite. :???: Luckily it hadn't.
<Another video here if it converts>
Due to the delays in getting through the city, and then getting "wet-anised", I was running a bit later than I'd hoped, and found myself finding my way into Melville Caves in the dark (and as I found the next morning, I'd come in the back way )
Time for a can (or two) and find somewhere flat to roll out my swag, then kick back and watch the lightning!
After saying goodbye to the Missus & Small Noisy Child at about 6pm on thursday night, I worked on getting approx 2 hours away so I was pulling up on dusk. After some Google Mapping earlier in the week, my target was Melville Caves in the Kooyoora State Park, just out of Inglewood. I completed the transit across the city with relatively few incidents, and pulled up at the server at Calder Park, because looking at the sky, I figured I might need my wets:
After getting the wets on (which instantly turned into a steam suit as it was still ~30deg) and putting the GoPro on the side of my lid, I continued up the Calder on my way to northwestish. At this point, Mother Nature decided she was going to test my wets, and started throwing heavy rain and lightning at me..
:thun
(30sec and 1:30+ are the interesting-er bits)
I now know that my wets aren't totally waterproof, and I ended up with a wet inner elbow (?!) and wet unmentionables.. :evil: Still, by the time I got to Harcourt, it was back to being dry and warm, so I could unzip the suit and dry off.
I was watching another storm off to my left all the way between Bendigo and Inglewood, just hoping it wasn't settling in over the top of my planned campsite. :???: Luckily it hadn't.
<Another video here if it converts>
Due to the delays in getting through the city, and then getting "wet-anised", I was running a bit later than I'd hoped, and found myself finding my way into Melville Caves in the dark (and as I found the next morning, I'd come in the back way )
Time for a can (or two) and find somewhere flat to roll out my swag, then kick back and watch the lightning!
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